King of the Mountain

Chapter 64: Newbie Again?

I spent the next week saying my farewells and making sure everything was set up to run smoothly. I cut my mana that was claiming land on the last day and reminded the council to govern well. I told my daughter that I loved her and asked her not to cry.

“Nicole you have to be safe while I am gone. I cannot worry about you when I am out and about.”

“Don’t worry dad I will be good. Stay safe yourself. You guys have to take care of dad since I can’t go with you ok.”

My dragons all swore that they would take good care of me. Both Nicole and I were trying to stay strong for each other. Before I had always known that no matter what I was close by, even if it was a teleport away. When at the competition I knew what to expect and that even if I lost I would be safe. However, I was truly heading off into the unknown this time. I could not take anymore, it was time to leave.

“I will contact you all as soon as I can. Try not to worry. Remember I bought the life stone from the Great Game store, so as long as it glows I am alive and you do not need to worry even if you cannot contact me. Walter, Elvira, Esmerelda, Bruce and Azure please return to storage so we can go.”

One last round of tearful goodbyes and I stood on the Great Game main teleportation platform.

“Please send me to Dungeon World.”

I watched my friends and family shimmer out as I teleported to what would be my next big adventure. Dungeon World ready or not here I come.

When I shimmered back into existence it was on a platform that was placed in the middle of a town square. There were very few people around, and everyone that was in sight stopped and stared at me before continuing on their way. I heard a couple muttering about is it that time already and another newbie that will get in the way. Before I could really look around I got one of the now infamous Great Game messages, and not one I liked.

Welcome to Dungeon World. Progress through the areas of Dungeon World to prove yourself worthy to inherit the true power of the Great Game. Participants must stay for at least one year before leaving Dungeon World. You are currently in the Safe Area of Zone 1 recommended level 500.

Participant is over level 1,000 and has all three tournament titles. Master Level access granted. Please report to the center of Dungeon World to initiate transfer of power.

What the heck? Ok quickly set my level to 550 with False Status. Now Master Level access, transfer of power, those sound like if I make it to the center than I will be in charge of either the Great Game or Dungeon World. Either one would be a good thing, but before I can plot my eventual take over I need information. This looks like any other starting town if it were a video game. The only issue is the low number of people. Let’s see where do I go for information. I scan the area and only see three open businesses in sight. I can go to the Dungeon World Emporium, Hank’s Metal Works, or the Last Chance Bar.

I am going to avoid the clichés for now and try what I assume is a general store. As I enter a little chime rings and an older man who still looks to be in great shape smiles at me from behind the counter.

“You must be the new comer. I can’t believe it has already been three years. Welcome to my store the Dungeon World Emporium, as I like to say if you can’t find it here you can’t find it anywhere.”

“Um, hello. Is it that obvious that I am new here?”

“Well son, we only get new people every three years, so it is relatively easy to spot a new face.”

“That makes sense. My name is Mark and you are?”

“I am sorry, where are my manners. You can call me Shopkeeper Tim if your selling or just Tim if your buying something.”

“Well I am definitely interested in buying some things, please let me know if you have them. First is a map of the area and second is information.”

“Maps I have and information too. Each is priced differently depending on the level of quality you want.”

“Float me the price for the finest of each that you have.”

It was as if I could see little dollar signs start to shine in his eyes. His smile somehow managed to get even bigger.

“Well Zone 1’s map is 100 mithral coins, each area after that doubles in price. Zone 2 is 200 mithral, zone 3 is 800 mithral, etc.. I have the first six zones for sale here at the store. After that you will have to find another source. As for information for 1,000 mithral coins an hour I will answer anything and everything including my deepest darkest personal secrets.”

“That seems fair. Here is 10,000 mithral. I want all of the maps and I expect you to answer questions until I run out of credit.”

“Yes Sir, Mr. Mark Sir.”

The next couple hours were very informative. I don’t think that Tim ever thought somebody would pay his information fee and was trying his hardest to either impress me or to prove he knew what he was talking about. I found out that every winner of the competition since the Great Game began as far as people know has come to the Dungeon World. There were a total of 10 different zones. Each one had hundreds or thousands of dungeons and thousands if not millions of square kilometers to explore. In every zone there was one safe area with several buildings set up.

Zone 1 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 400 – 600, zone 2 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 500 – 700, and zone 3 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 600 – 800. Now this is where things got interesting. In order to reach zone 4, you had to qualify and have at least copper level access. Copper level access was granted by the Great Game if you made it to level 600 or had spent at least 25 years in the Dungeon World.

Zone 4 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 700 – 900, zone 5 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 800 – 1,000, and zone 6 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 900 – 1,100. In order to reach zone 7, you had to qualify and have at least silver level access. Silver level access was granted by the Great Game if you made it to level 900 or had spent at least 100 years in the Dungeon World.

Zone 7 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 1,000 – 1,200, zone 8 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 1,100 – 1,300, and zone 9 had dungeons and free roaming monsters from levels 1,200 – 1,400. In order to reach zone 10, you had to qualify and have at least gold level access. Gold level access was granted by the Great Game if you made it to level 1,200 or had spent at least 250 years in the Dungeon World.

There was no mention of what was inside zone 10. No one who had qualified and traveled into it had ever come back to report on it. It was said that if you had two championship titles you gained copper level access and if you gained all three championship titles the Great Game gave you silver access without the level restrictions or time limits. It was considered pretty useless because you would die pretty quickly if you entered those areas as only a level 400-500 person which was the common level for new comers. Master level access like I was granted was never mentioned and I was not going to give away that I had something that unique.

After your free year was up you could travel back or you could stay at the cost of one level every six months as a payment to the Great Game. That was why people were grumbling at me in the town square. A new person usually needed help leveling up and that slowed people down from leveling themselves. If you did not gain more experience than you had to give up each year, I can see why people would be upset.

You could not skip an area either. The teleportation station I arrived at could reach all of the other safe areas. However, the Great Game would not let you teleport to another area until you had at least conquered one dungeon in the zone you were coming from. So even if someone had copper access they could not teleport to safe area 4 and get better equipment or materials from the stores there. Everyone had to stay in their zones until they proved they were ready to move up. Through some weird manipulation of physics, no matter where you were in a zone if you continued North for 250 miles you would enter the next zone. There would be an invisible barrier that would not let you pass unless you had earned the proper access and had conquered at least one dungeon.

The final piece of vital information that Tim gave me was on respawns. You were entitled to three respawns on Dungeon World. The first was free. It did not cost any levels, but you were transported down a zone if you were above zone 1. The second respawn cost 100 levels. It took you all the way back to zone 1 and cost you one level of access if you had it. For example, Silver access dropped back down to copper access and you had to re-earn those access permissions. The third and final respawn cost 250 levels, took you back to zone 1 and revoked all access privileges. If this happened to a person, they usually chose to leave the Dungeon World.

Since I had an access level that was not even mentioned I needed to do this without respawning. I was afraid that even the “free” respawn might take away the Master level access that I was granted. With my high level at starting I had years to accomplish my task if needed. Slow and methodical was probably going to be the best way to make sure I did not screw up. My plan after talking to Tim was to make my way to zone 4 and start to level there. Once I reached level 1,100 I would move to the next zone. I would set my levels to be about 50 above what was needed at each zone and avoid contact as much as possible to make sure my unusual status was not as noticeable. Depending on leveling speed I might move up a zone or two.

I should be in a better position than most as I have four high level companions and a familiar. I do not need to team up for dungeons and I can hold anything I need to survive in my inventory. I wanted to start at zone 4 more to level up my dragons and let Walter catch up to me than to progress myself. I might end up being here for years so I decided before anything else to contact my daughter and let her know the situation. This would be my only contact for a while. The Great Game has imposed some strange restrictions on this world and one was communication. You can use a normal communication crystal once and that is it. After that you had to use a specific Dungeon World communication crystal to upgrade your existing ones. Those crystals were drops from boss monsters of dungeons of zones 4 and higher. Another reason for me to travel to zone 4. The Great Game seemed to doing everything it could to encourage people to keep progressing as fast as possible through this world.

I thanked Tim for all his help and I decided it was time for me to start my trip. They say the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. That was literally true for me. I would be traveling 1,000 miles north to reach zone 4. In each zone I would stop by a couple of the higher level dungeons marked on the map to earn access to the next zone. These stops would also let me experience the dungeons and see if they were similar or different than the ones on Earth before I got to higher level ones that might surprise me. My first destination was an insect hive dungeon rated at level 600. It was supposed to be about fifty miles north east of the safe area in zone 1. My next stop after that was another level 600 dungeons supposedly populated by Kobolds.

If there are no problems with my first two stops, I will continue to travel north until I reach zone 2. I figure travelling on foot will help me avoid many of the questions people might have about me reaching certain areas and zones to fast. I only plan to access another safe area in zone 4. I have plenty of supplies and anything I collect can just sit in my inventory. It seems there is not as much traffic between access levels as there is between zones. This means once I reach zone 4 and set my False Status to something appropriate I should not be questioned. I will just be another person who has finally leveled up enough or spent enough time in Dungeon World to reach a new zone.

However, before I do anything else I need to contact home and let them know that I am stuck here for at least a year. In all likelihood unless they needed me for an emergency I would probably be living here full time until this whole get to the center thing was over.

“Nicole, are you there?”

“Yes daddy, how is dungeon world.”

“Well everything is going fine for now, but I need you to listen carefully and pass on some messages. This place has some severe restrictions and this will be the last time I can talk to you for a while.”

“Alright dad, whatever you need.”

“Thanks sweet pea and remember daddy loves you.”

I tell Nicole all about the communication restriction and how I was going to be here at least a year and probably a lot longer. Once I had secured a zone 4 I told her she would be the first one I contacted. That could be anywhere from a month to a year so please do not worry too much. After I made sure she would deliver messages to everyone else that needed to know I reluctantly signed off. This might be more difficult than I thought. I always wanted to be alone, but now that I am cut off without a choice I am not liking the feeling. I guess what I enjoyed most about being alone before was the power and ability to decide when I had enough and that I got to choose when to rejoin and reconnect with everyone else. Oh well nothing to do but keep going.